Stop using Hydrospanner, it's a bad ability.

[Verain]

Hydrospanner's not a bad ability, you just have to know how to use it. it won't save you from the "BLC/rocket one shot of dooom!" and against a build like that? I tend not to use it. where it's most useful is after making a kill to patch your hull up a bit I use it quite sucessfully on my strike fighter

 

 

I mean, the point of the post is to tell you why it's a bad move. That it is a bad move isn't really up for debate. Your ability to use it to "patch up" doesn't change, for example, why it is worse than the other defensive cooldowns, and incorrect in general. It's not like I forgot about strike fighters when making my post. It applies to them to.

[Asbetos]

Hydrospanner's not a bad ability, you just have to know how to use it. it won't save you from the "BLC/rocket one shot of dooom!" and against a build like that? I tend not to use it. where it's most useful is after making a kill to patch your hull up a bit I use it quite sucessfully on my strike fighter

 

It's better to use Running Interference and avoid that damage altogether.

[zvbm]

Things I'd rather use than hydrospanner:

 

 

1. Rapid fire lasers *pew pew pew pew pew pew pew*
   
2. Plasma rail + lingering effect *I heard you like dots so I put a dot on your dot*
   
3. Thermite + protorp on a dustmaker
   
4. Shield repair instead of ammo on a repair probe
   
5. Crit chance on ion rail. You have shields eh?
   
6. Ion cannon + bypass
   
7. Speed boost instead of engin regen on tensor field.
   

 

 

Just in case it isn't apparent, all of these are BAD. Still not as bad as hydrospanner.

 

~Zen

[Ramalina]

Hydrospanner's not a bad ability, you just have to know how to use it. it won't save you from the "BLC/rocket one shot of dooom!" and against a build like that? I tend not to use it. where it's most useful is after making a kill to patch your hull up a bit I use it quite sucessfully on my strike fighter

 

There's a fair bit of hyperbole in the anti-hydrospanner explanations here, but don't let that blind you to the really key point.

 

In most cases if you survived using hydrospanner you probably also would have survived without it.

 

If your defensive flying skills keep you alive long enough to get significant use out of Hydrospanner (and you can get mechanic medals with it if you really want to) then chances are that your defensive flying skills are good enough to keep you alive about the same amount of time without hydrospanner.

 

Mostly the difference hydrospanner makes is that you might be less nervous about getting shot down if your ship is no longer completely on fire.

 

Once you get comfortable flying a flaming ship (think of it as the most exciting paint job in GSF) you can replace the healing, "security blanket," with a tool that is more useful and interesting.

[mattycutts]

im sorry but i have to disgree with you.

 

for a start, any set up depends on a persons play style, what works for 90% of people might not work for every person.

 

does having hydro spanner make u a bad person? same as not having hydro spanner make u a good player? no to both.

 

i use hydro spanner alot it suits my play style. ive been doing gsf since start of it and its all i do, apart some bits of ground pvp.

 

As alot know, sometimes u just simply cant rely on pugs for the win, having repair drones/probes etc. in TDM i find it especially useful and has kept me in the fight alot. Am i a team player yes, i try to protect gunships etc, i try to lead people hot on my tail by the gunships to pick them off. yes hydro spanner is not an amazing heal but it is a heal and when theres no other heals it can help even slightly. sometimes doing a little more damage doesnt always help towards the win.

 

in any tdm, dom i make an inpact and rarely ever out top 3 overal in any game for kills,assists,objectives etc.

 

I am not saying your views are wrong or right but there not the given if u dont do this your terrible attitude.

 

also it helps get the master mechanic achievement title completed. got it through just that ability, so it cant be that terrible if i can get repair medals during a match on my scouts, fighters, gunships with no repair drones or probes etc.

 

you can call me terrible but i know what i bring the team every game and its a assit not a burdon.

[Magira]

 

also it helps get the master mechanic achievement title completed.

 

The title does nothing for GSF, not for PVP, null for Conquest. What should I do with this? Yes, I know there are people with 170 Pets or PVPer with a huge speeder fleet, they go for a walk around the PVP terminal. But as an argument for the usefulness of an ability that is a bit thin.

[mattycutts]

The title does nothing for GSF, not for PVP, null for Conquest. What should I do with this? Yes, I know there are people with 170 Pets or PVPer with a huge speeder fleet, they go for a walk around the PVP terminal. But as an argument for the usefulness of an ability that is a bit thin.

 

i know you, and i respect you as a decent gsf player, and u know im no noob. why pick out one little sentence at the end of a far bigger answer?

 

your right it does nothing, but to achieve that u need to do so much repairing and if its achieveable from just hydro spanner shows either i get alot of repair uses during a match or the lack of bombers etc with decent placed repair drones.

[Pilgrim_Grey]

Theres a few posts in here advocating the use of Hydrospanner in other situation then Verain mentioned I think the big problem might be the skill gap from the matchmaking deluding players into thinking it is better.

 

It's all about what you need as a pilot. I solo queue all the time and can't trust that I can get healing from my teammates, so I actually like Hydrospanner on my Pub pilots (and you at least can get the passive accuracy bonus from the copilot, Pubside). I'm not disagreeing that there are plenty of great offensive abilities to go with, but I have had many matches where I've healed back up from red on my scouts, strikes, and gunships.

 

Really, it's nice for a few things. First, to be able to heal up and not be at a disadvantage in a fight because your armor is in the red from previous engagement. Two, to keep from being everyone's target because your health is low: people aren't dumb, when they see you're hurting, they target you first. I'll take a red target over an orange or a green, any day. And three, no matter how well you use your other offensive or defensive cooldowns, you are going to get some damage that comes through to your hull. There's not much you can do about that then, unless you know your teammates are going to be running repair probes, etc. And unless I'm with guildies that I know have that ability, I'm not going to hope that a teammate chose to pick it up.

 

Not saying there aren't arguments for other co-pilot abilities, but that's what is good about GSF, you have pros and cons to more than just a few choices.

[Asbetos]

It's all about what you need as a pilot. I solo queue all the time and can't trust that I can get healing from my teammates, so I actually like Hydrospanner on my Pub pilots (and you at least can get the passive accuracy bonus from the copilot, Pubside). I'm not disagreeing that there are plenty of great offensive abilities to go with, but I have had many matches where I've healed back up from red on my scouts, strikes, and gunships.

 

Really, it's nice for a few things. First, to be able to heal up and not be at a disadvantage in a fight because your armor is in the red from previous engagement. Two, to keep from being everyone's target because your health is low: people aren't dumb, when they see you're hurting, they target you first. I'll take a red target over an orange or a green, any day. And three, no matter how well you use your other offensive or defensive cooldowns, you are going to get some damage that comes through to your hull. There's not much you can do about that then, unless you know your teammates are going to be running repair probes, etc. And unless I'm with guildies that I know have that ability, I'm not going to hope that a teammate chose to pick it up.

 

Not saying there aren't arguments for other co-pilot abilities, but that's what is good about GSF, you have pros and cons to more than just a few choices.

 

You're still better off with RI. If it makes the enemies miss 1 single shot, it's better than Hydrospanner. 1 hit from mastered quads with no buffs, non-crit is 750 damage to your hull (provided you don't have shields). If RI makes just 1 of those hits miss, it's 3 times better than Hydrospanner.

[Magira]

i know you, and i respect you as a decent gsf player, and u know im no noob. why pick out one little sentence at the end of a far bigger answer?

 

 

Do not take it so seriously. So that was not meant. Is just not that easy, my somewhat sarcastic spelling to translate into English. Sorry if this got wrong.

[mattycutts]

Do not take it so seriously. So that was not meant. Is just not that easy, my somewhat sarcastic spelling to translate into English. Sorry if this got wrong.

 

its fine

 

btw i do look forward to seeing you in same matches, like to think we both give each other run for our money at times lol.

 

for record few times you may have failed to kill me was thanks to my hydro spanner lol

 

(This isnt aimed at you enistra)

 

in reply to what someone else put, if the other ability is not guarenteed and hydro spanner is, and i and others have repaired our selfs from burning up ships without dieing, which is better? to me neither, what suits each person, your way is not better for me and my way isnt better for you. in gsf there is technically no if you take this your crap, ive seen many pilots with the perfect optimal set up and lay waste to them, not having hydro spanner dont make you good and vice versa.

 

i use the set up that suits me, i pay for this game, im good a player, whys it matter if people like me take hydro spanner as long as we bring our A game to every match which i do try.

[StrixHiraeth]

Mostly the difference hydrospanner makes is that you might be less nervous about getting shot down if your ship is no longer completely on fire.

 

Once you get comfortable flying a flaming ship (think of it as the most exciting paint job in GSF) you can replace the healing, "security blanket," with a tool that is more useful and interesting.

 

I think the real question here is: how in the hell do those fires burn and smoke like that in freaking outer space? AND why is there so much sound in outer space?? Were outer space and physics really that much different a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away?

 

On topic:

 

As a solo flyer, it's hard to know things like this because you learn only through your own experience. I agree that hydro spanner is attractive and even useful for new or inexperienced pilots. I used to swear by hydro spanner. As I've mentioned before, I am a scout pilot; I used to use hydro spanner a lot, but I discovered through trial and error that Running Interference and Wingman tend to make me more effective, and that usually it's better just to die and get a fresh spawn than to limp around hydro-spanning. I use Servo Jammer on my Bloodmark (which I finally figured out how to use!). There are situations where hydro spanner can be useful--but they're not typical situations.

Edited September 29, 2014 by Ymris

[Verain]

im sorry but i have to disgree with you.

 

It doesn't really matter if you disagree with me. The move is still bad.

 

for a start, any set up depends on a persons play style, what works for 90% of people might not work for every person.

 

I reject that argument. Hydrospanner is just a bad move. I cover the few situations where it could be optimal, and most of them are "you aren't helping your team as much as you could".

 

does having hydro spanner make u a bad person?

 

Whoa bro, lotsa straw leaking out of that man you are setting up. Did I say something like this? Of course not.

 

same as not having hydro spanner make u a good player?

 

A good player should not use hydrospanner (except generally as written in the post!). You can be a great player and use a bad move, a bad ship, a bad component, whatever. They hold you back, but they buy you part of some other playstyle.

 

I'll also say this: if hydrospanner were buffed to be balanced, then the playstyles that use it would be more helpful. It's reasonable to play a bad (something), knowing that it is bad, because you want the play depth. Many options in this game are worse than others, but give you an interesting experience. But no one argues from that direction, probably because hydrospanner, unlike, say, plasma railgun, rapid fire lasers, and EMP missile, doesn't buy you depth. All of these things could be safely buffed, sure, but the game will really benefit from better RFLs- the skill cap on them is large, there's just no payoff. As Ramalina points out, hydrospanner is like sitting on the floor and saying "Well, I can't fall down from here!".

 

 

i use hydro spanner alot

 

http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html

 

I see the hydro spanner alot as like, a regular alot? But holding a wrench-like thing.

 

it suits my play style.

 

Stop using it for a month and try out wingman, see if you notice a difference.

 

yes hydro spanner is not an amazing heal but it is a heal and when theres no other heals it can help even slightly.

 

Again, there's nothing magical about it being "a heal". It's a bad move. If you had been pressing suppression or running interference, you would normally have MORE life, not less, and you'd have a chance to entirely dodge those "one shot" things that hydrospanner can't save you from. Meanwhile, if you were using concentrated fire or wingman, you'd be scoring kills you think you can't score right now, hitting at angles with shots you normally would miss with, etc.

 

More importantly, it hardly ever saves you. The impact of any move is not based on "it is a heal". That kind of bad thinking is the whole point of this thread. Players selectively remember the times it helped, they go out of their way to spin a narrative where it is good, even though it is not. They want the security blanket of BELIEVING that they can "heal to full".

 

I went over all of this in my post. Your arguments were refuted in my original post, and you are the exact kind of player who should not be thirty-fiving- skilled enough, and held back by a misevaluation of "I don't want to go out without a heal, so this terrible heal that never matters is good enough".

 

Here's a fast way to tell if you are being irrational: ask yourself if the move was nerfed from +35 to +25. Would you still use it? If so- if "it's a heal" and "it might save me" even pop up- you need to stop using the move now, and practice with others, so you can see!

 

 

I am not saying your views are wrong or right but there not the given if u dont do this your terrible attitude.

 

It's actually not terrible players who I'm talking to. This is a move that you'll do well to avoid, and I'm explaining why. I explicitly made THIS thread because this bad move has a LOT of adherents, players who are FAR TOO GOOD to be using a poor move. They don't make this terrible choice in the REST of their loadout.

 

So no, terribles and foodships I don't care about. I care about players who are GOOD and still use the move.

 

what i bring the team every game and its a assit not a burdon.

 

Don't compare yourself to nublet ships. Your comparison is ALWAYS to what YOU could have done better. Your "competition", in GSF and everywhere else, is a version of you that makes different choices, not the random guy that doesn't know to spacebar, and not some super amazeball player that could go pro player if he so chose. Your comparison is "you with hydrospanner" to "you with wingman", and I'm saying, that second guy is the better pilot.

 

 

 

But as an argument for the usefulness of an ability that is a bit thin.

 

Agreed totally. I'll also point out that if you ARE doing something odd like this- using some ability because you want to maximize some notebook, or check-box a map instead of exploring the territory- then you could well find that. I don't consider that. Plasma railgun is the best for dealing "damage-over-time with a railgun". If there was a medal for that, you might be bribed into using it to get the medal. But there isn't- no one is driving to that sinkhole because no one drew a map there.

 

 

why pick out one little sentence at the end of a far bigger answer?

 

Probably because it's the least relevant. You just dumped every argument in favor of the ability that you could think of. There was a guy that used B-3G9 for RP reasons awhile back, hydrospanner is his copilot ability for reasons for a narrative in his head, but he knew he was telling himself a story.

 

I will say that if you are using it to "put heals on the board" or "get medals", then yes, it's the only way to achieve that with most ships. I would point out that none of those things help your characters, your ships, or the game.

 

 

 

It's all about what you need as a pilot. I solo queue all the time and can't trust that I can get healing from my teammates, so I actually like Hydrospanner on my Pub pilots (and you at least can get the passive accuracy bonus from the copilot, Pubside).

 

Try reading my post (the section about copilots) and you'll see that pubs actually have it worse. Neither emps nor reps give up pinpointing if they are paying attention (empire CAN pick MZ-12, but he's a terrible choice- you should always take Blizz instead, no exceptions ever, as Blizz's only downside is that you shoot less, but MZ-12 will hurt your shots way more by making them miss).

 

Stop worrying about "healing" in general. You are the exact example of someone who needs to stop using hydrospanner. You think "healing" is a needed thing, and you'll buy it at whatever price it is offered at. The price is wrong!

 

The other copilot abilities will help you more. I spent a whole post (and soon a whole thread) explaining why that is the case, and why you should stop using hydrospanner.

 

You know why?

 

 

Because it is a bad ability!

 

 

Two, to keep from being everyone's target because your health is low: people aren't dumb, when they see you're hurting, they target you first.

 

If they weren't shooting at you, they would be shooting at your enemies. Are you saying that you are less evasive than everyone else you play with (which you also mentioned were pugs)?

 

 

I will grant this: the effect you describe is real, but the odds are that hydrospanner won't be the difference between target choices in most cases. Again, the heal is small. I'll also state that in order for this to help:

1)- Hydrospanner needs to heal you enough for them to not select you as primary target.

2)- That needs to be a misplay on their part: it needs to be smarter for them to shoot at you than it is for them to shoot at your enemies, but your higher health fools them into screwing up.

 

 

I bet (2) isn't even the case. If you play with randoms, it almost assuredly isn't, because I bet you can actually dodge a shot, and a random can't. And I bet (1) basically never happens- out of how many games does your thirtyfiving acutally do this?

 

Oh, and remember to subtract out pilots that preferentially target spanning pilots on the WORRY that they will "heal to full" (the same irrational belief that it is a good move that you share!).

[mattycutts]

@Verain

 

ok, im not completely blinded by what you say, and ill re-test your way and im honest if im better with it ill hold my hands up.

 

but it is one of some abilities that needs adjusting no question with that.

[Verain]

Yea, it absolutely needs buffs. But as players we can discuss things as players ("Use this strategy, it's good") or as devs ("Nerf this strategy a bit and buff this one, I think it would make the game more fun."). I try to keep the conversation like that in different threads, because it can become hard to follow. If people want to ask for buffs for hydrospanner in this thread though, that's fine.

 

 

But you know what's funny, one way you know the move isn't good? I've never seen anyone actually ask for nerfs to the move. I mean, players will ask to nerf everything. We had a guy come in and tell us all that missile locks were impossible to break, nerf missiles, and we obviously have people complaining about the actually overrepped ships. The funniest one is the Flashfire, which almost everyone wants to nerf, but the nerfs range from gentle (my opinion) to severe (not an uncommon opinion), but even THEN exactly WHAT part someone feels needs nerfs changes constantly.

 

 

But no one is like "take away hydrospanner, my enemies never die because of it".

[Delta_V]

 

But you know what's funny, one way you know the move isn't good? I've never seen anyone actually ask for nerfs to the move. I mean, players will ask to nerf everything. We had a guy come in and tell us all that missile locks were impossible to break, nerf missiles, and we obviously have people complaining about the actually overrepped ships. The funniest one is the Flashfire, which almost everyone wants to nerf, but the nerfs range from gentle (my opinion) to severe (not an uncommon opinion), but even THEN exactly WHAT part someone feels needs nerfs changes constantly.

 

 

But no one is like "take away hydrospanner, my enemies never die because of it".

 

Queue hydrospanner nerf thread in 3...2...1...

 

But I agree, it has been severely underbudget ever since it got nerfed between the PTS and Live. IIRC, it used to heal for like 600-odd health, but everyone used it on the PTS and it got nerfed. The funny part is, everyone was talked about how it was so powerful at the time, when in reality, it might not have been that great, we just didn't have a deep enough understanding of the game at the time to realize the potential of buffs like Wingman and Running Interferance (people didn't fully understand the power of Evasion, and thus didn't understand the value of an Accuracy buff). Instead, everyone just saw "hey look, a heal!" (at a time when there were absolutely no other heals in the game) and thought it was the greatest. Well, except for maybe Concentrated Fire, which increased your Crit Chance by 99% at once point, which was simply broken.

 

 

Ultimately, you are correct - people see a heal, and drastically overvalue it's theoretical potential to heal to full. Sure, it *might* be enough to make your ship stop burning, but a properly timed Running Interference could have prevented your ship from catching fire in the first place. As others have said, Running Interference only has to make a single Quad Laser bolt miss for it to outweigh the heal of Hydrospanner.

[Verain]

Your analysis of beta use and subsequent nerf is pretty interesting, actually. If the move has so many adherents now, as a bad move, it probably had a LOT of adherents if it was actually worth taking- likely enough to signal to the devs that it shouldn't be left alone.

 

That's a really solid observation, and likely explains how the move ended up so weak.

[Arkerus]

Basically,

 

It got nerfed out of the game. oops.

[FridgeLM]

Ok, normally "careening off into space" means "effortlessly get to a safe spot to LOS". But, lets pretend you don't want that.

 

Then k-turn. That keeps you almost stationary and you can even execute it on a node without leaving the node. I said "barrel roll or whatevs" so you wouldn't just think "barrel roll and only that", but, again, whatevs.

 

I'm able to effortlessly get to a safe spot to LOS without relying on a machine to perform a ridiculous maneuver for me - one I can't break out of on my own even if I wanted to. That's why I use shield power converter.

[Kuciwalker]

When you are an above average player fighting a ton of worse players (and I think we all realize how bad the matchmaking is by now this happens a lot) what happens is we gradually focus on ablities that make us "win more".

 

Hydrospanner is such an ability, if you're not fighting opponents of equal skill you don't need that cooldown to win the fight and will win while taking minimal damage suddenly a small heal sounds way more awesome then a cooldown to win a fight in the heat of the moment, because you didn't even need it.

 

I don't like dying in trash matches. I put hydrospanner on some of the ships I keep around for trash matches because it means I don't die to the minimal levels of attrition I might suffer during them.

 

I 100% agree that the ability does not increase the win %, but increasing the win % isn't why I take it.

 

also, heal medals

Edited September 29, 2014 by Kuciwalker

[nyghtrunner]

Tl;dr - Agree with Verain.

 

But with that said, I'm a pretty recent convert to letting go of Hydro-Spanner on my battlescouts. But when I truly think about it, the number of times it has truly helped win a match comes down to this one time... In that match, the enemies fielded I think 4 (might have been 5) bombers, and for me, the entire match was keeping them away from C, assaulting B, and defending both throughout the rest. Hydro-Spanner was a MAJOR factor in me keeping myself alive throughout that match. There were bombs blowing up here, people chasing and assaulting there, and general explosions all over the place (granted, it's Denon).

 

Somehow I managed to keep out of detonation range of bombs, by and large, was able to heal myself back from red multiple times, and I can't say for certain, but I have a feeling that if we lose B or C in that match after grabbing B, we lose. And that ability definitely kept me alive. Now with that said, I can't say for certain at this point that I didn't get some Clarion love or get some love from repair drones, but that one was one where concentration was so high on going from target to target to target, I didn't have a chance to truly watch for anything that wasn't immediately relevant to combat.

 

And from the very small handful of matches that got into that territory... Well, I was left with the impression that Hydro-spanner was useful. "It's a heal I can use!" "If I can get away, I can heal myself back up!" "It helps keep my hull from being on fire, which makes me fly a little more conservatively!" These are all valid arguments, and in a way, I'd argue that Hydro-Spanner was a "decent" fit for my build. But if you go back and look at my 1-4 defensives, they are all REACTIVE.

 

I take damage, I hit Quick Charge. If it gets through, I hit Hydro as well. I don't think it's a terrible theory to have a reactive build, but the reality is that this game is just too bursty to rely on it. The number of times I've been killed with either of those on CD, or with enough damage that they largely just don't matter, even without taking into account the HoT aspect of Hydro...

 

I rely pretty heavily on defensive flying in a sense. I like to hit and fade. I like to bring people "into my lair". I like to get a good angle on an unsuspecting target while they're occupied. But about 2 weeks ago, I got into a game on TEH that absolutely changed my perspective on this.

 

It was against what I would consider the usual suspects on the Pub side of TEH (Aimbot, Rhint, etc. Don't think they had Scrabs or Tommmsunb with them, but I honestly can't say. I don't know everyone on that server by a longshot). We Imps got obliterated in a TDM. I think largely they overpowered us early, and leveraged that into a dominating map position, but early on, there were a few times where I had Rhint, Renegade-One, or one of the other GSers in my sights, caught them with their pants down a bit (I think?) and got them to 5-10% hull strength before being either killed or having to peel as they ran, etc...

 

And I kept thinking, "5%, and maybe I get one, move on to the next, or have a fade, and can go back..." And if that happens a couple of times, I've broken their ranks, and the game is maybe competitive. So I started thinking about modding my build to become more lethal, and care a little less about survivability. Ironically, I don't think the ultimate new build served that purpose, but that's because Disto is just so strong and useful in so many situations, but that's another story.

 

So I started tinkering with Disto, Rocket Pods, and Wingman/CF as the #4 CD.

 

And my god, that thing is lethal. It's the epitome of "the best defense is a good offense!". The new build sporting those things has higher burst, and just about everything about it is proactive, rather than reactive. It gives me the extra 5% and then a lot. And while I do occasionally waste offensive CDs, it's rare to completely waste one, and the number of times things disintegrate so fast I can move to other targets with both or one of the CDs still up seem to more than make up for it.

 

To put it in perspective, with the old build, if I jousted a bomber in my battlescout, I'd either have to peel, or I'd be a red flaming mess as I passed him, and have not quite killed him, and be faced with turning around and having to chew through the other set of shields while following. That is a BAD place to be in a battlescout.

 

With the new build, I can engage at max range, and the bomber is GONE before both of my shield arcs are. With a well timed Disto, they may not even hit me. By getting rid of the bomber before he's in position, I am proactively helping myself and my team win the match. It turns the sort of encounters that used to turn into longer chases or turning wars, into a kill, and looking for next target unless the opposing target has really good awareness and reflexes, and peels almost immediately. And even if they do that, you've most likely landed some amount on their hull, and you have the better angle.

 

I still fly with Hydro-Spanner when I'm piddling around because we shouldn't be losing, even if I just didn't play, but when you run into high level people or teams... Aimbot doesn't care about Hydro-Spanner or Quick-Charge Shield, because 2 shots with a slug is still a dead ship. Aimbot cares about blowing up, because then there are no more slugs until respawn (Using Aims as a potential foil because I think he's a great shot in that stupid funship, not to pick on him, but he's someone I have played against, and I know others on the forum will know of).

 

I've picked off Scrabs multiple times with this build. And while I do think he's a better pilot than I am, the point is that catching him unawares, and unloading like this gets him off the field before he can react. That "saves" more damage than Hydro-spanner or Quick-Charge will ever "heal".

 

I've heard a lot of people say that this mini-game is based largely around burst damage, and I'm coming firmly into the camp that hand-in-hand with that, being proactive is much, much more important than being reactive, especially on a scout. I've flown probably 5-10x as many matches in a Scout than I have in anything else (closest will be Strike, and Bomber/Gunship, I don't even have the "50 matches" with... I just don't enjoy flying them...). I still kind of like reactive on a Strike, but again, I fly that when the match is largely over before it begins, and I get into "don't get attritioned out" mode. It also helps that Strikes have a LOT more beef than Scouts.

 

So I as recently as 3 weeks ago, I would have been with Mattycuts and several others saying that Hydro is decent. Not great, but decent. At this point, I'm pretty firmly in the camp of "in close matches where #4 really matters, it's irrelevant."

 

I don't always agree with Verain, but in this case, I think he's spot on.

[BlackflameSeven]

Once you get comfortable flying a flaming ship (think of it as the most exciting paint job in GSF) you can replace the healing, "security blanket," with a tool that is more useful and interesting.

 

I agree, this is the point at which I tend to laugh the most. Flying around in a ship that a sneeze should kill, still shooting people down. The first time I saw that my ship image in the display had gone black, I could barely see the hull for the flames and smoke, hopefully I frustrated a few people that match in how long I lasted in that state

[tomatosquish]

It's all about what you need as a pilot. I solo queue all the time and can't trust that I can get healing from my teammates, .

 

This is what I wanted to say the other day but didn't.

 

I won't disagree with you that it is a crappy skill, I know it has a minimal heal and takes away a bit from your offense. The thing is you never know what you are going to face when you solo que. You can have one game with 3 or 4 people dropping repair drones and then turn around and not have repairs at all.. Ultimately it comes down to what works for you, not what works for other people.

 

For me in TDM it lets me heal up abit between waves of attacks while defending a satellite.

 

In elimination it lets me heal up after popping the gunship I just bumrushed that chose to try and take me out rather than run from my missile (not realizing that his shields and half his hull have been stripped by my heavies already)

 

I am not some great defensive flyer, which is why I don't use scouts... Too squishy for me, and I don't care for hit and run. I find someone trying to run down a teammate and I sink my teeth in regardless of what targets me, this is where hydrospanner is useful (to me). It lets me stay in the fight just that much longer which usually means I got that pest off the tail of my teammate in the gunship.

 

 

Should note however that I only use it on the stock strike fighter... beyond that I too find it useless.

Edited October 2, 2014 by tomatosquish

[Buggleslor]

I am not some great defensive flyer, which is why I don't use scouts... Too squishy for me, and I don't care for hit and run. I find someone trying to run down a teammate and I sink my teeth in regardless of what targets me, this is where hydrospanner is useful (to me). It lets me stay in the fight just that much longer which usually means I got that pest off the tail of my teammate in the gunship..

 

Have you been reading the rest of the thread, like at all? There are several other copilot abilities that fit this playstyle better. Even if you're 100% disrespecting the other team by assuming there's nobody that can kill you when you fly in a straight line or think your only gunship opponents are total morons with no missile breaks who you can joust freely... hydrospanner is not the best choice for your playstile. You have a choice between taking 500 damage and healing 250 of it, or taking 100 damage. Even if the choice is between 250 damage and healing 250 or taking 75, you might not have taken the damage at all if you had a decent offensive copilot ability to kill the person you had "sunk your teeth" into and take some defensive action.

 

It doesn't matter if there are "no other heals" on your team. This isn't an operation. You're still better off with ES or wingman or literally any other defensive co-pilot ability that will reduce the damage you take more than hydrospanner can possibly heal. If the other team is so bad they can't burst you down through the hilariously tiny amount of healing hydrospanner does, then it really doesn't matter what ability you're taking because it's a stomp. If you die from attrition you can just get back to the sat and destroy them all.

 

By the way, saying "my playstyle doesn't fit blah blah blah" always just sounds to me like "I don't want to learn and I choose to be bad." You don't like to fly defensively? Sucks to be you, because the game doesn't give a crap what you like and defensive flying is literally the only way to not die repeatedly against anyone who isn't a total scrub. On the other hand, if it's really that much more fun to die repeatedly, go for it. You can always use the power of confirmation bias to decide that the matches you fly against noobs fresh from the tutorial show how great you are while the ones you lose terribly are entirely the fault of your teammates.

Edited October 2, 2014 by Buggleslor

[Storm-Cutter]

I'm with tomato squish above it isn't optimal . But for a mainly solo player who never knows what your team mates are fielding it can be -a life saver if you get isloated or ambushed . If only team mates could share load outs and change them when the match is queued up we could fine tune our ships to respond . A marker beacon for repair probes would be a great QOL improvement too. It's a fine lIne between healing up and being out of combat for a while or risking all by attacking with a close-to death-and-easy-to-kill ship.... But for the record I fly scouts about 90% of the time so maybe this has a bearing . Edited October 2, 2014 by Storm-Cutter